Tanto Tempo

Tanto Tempo is an album by Brazilian bossa nova singer Bebel Gilberto. Brazilian electronic artist Amon Tobin's "Nova", from the album Permutation, is the backing track of "Samba da Benção". Daughter of the famed Brazilian pop and bossa nova singer João Gilberto, Bebel recalls her father's own classic recordings on Tanto Tempo, with a sure sense of pitch. Bebel Gilberto is hardly less charming for that, though, and the album entices with hushed passion. Relying mostly on acoustic instruments and some muted orchestrations, Tanto Tempo is nonetheless smartly paced to allow for some tasteful dance-club electronics to augment a few tracks, and ends on a celebratory note with "Close Your Eyes"-all but an invitation to Carnival. The current trend for things Brazilian should assure this disc a deservedly wide audience. Licensing it for the U.S. is another minor triumph for the fine San Francisco-based label Six Degrees. - R. Wright